Winter Joys

It feels a little strange writing about winter today, as we've had record-breaking highs lately. Our spring-like weather (in the low 70s even!) has been just beautiful. But, it is still technically the season of winter, and I think our warm weather streak is ending tomorrow (with a snow/rain mix in the forecast). Plus, I'm a bit behind on my blogging... so here are some of our winter pics from our chillier February.

Finally! For the first time this winter, Cody and Jaden joined me in making a snowman. It helped that the weather was relatively warm (high 30s) that day and that the light snowfall didn't require the use of snow boots. The boys are much happier without gloves or boots outdoors!

The only problem with making a snowman in such a pitiful snowfall is that your snowballs can't get very large. Your snowman also gets covered in dead grass! Nevertheless, Cody and Jaden had a ball decorating our little guy with rocks, sticks, pinecones and leaves. We watched him melt little by little throughout the day, and by morning, our friend was gone.

February in the Schleicher household is also a highly anticipated time of year due to the arrival of.... McDonald's shamrock shakes!! These minty shakes have been long-time favorites for both Jason and Amy. Jaden and Cody are quickly learning to love them as well. As soon as the shakes hit the restaurant in mid-February, we were there! :) Can you sense our boys' anticipation??

That's a double YUM for us! :)

February Playgroup

For the month of February, our two playgroup themes were Valentine's Day and President's Day. As usual, we began our Valentine's playdate with snacks. I forgot to take a photo of the food, but Jenna made pretzels with melted chocolate, cut strawberries in the shape of hearts, and brought pink marshmallow hearts. The kids loved it all!

Jaden, Cody, Abbie, Landon, Ryder, Kenzie, Wes

 Samie planned a creative Valentine's game. When she played music (some fun love-themed songs), the kids walked around this circle of hearts.

You'll notice that many of the kids are wearing random dresses or capes (or a dress that serves as a cape, in Ryder's case!). They were very into a dress-up game of "heroes saving the princess" right before we grabbed them to play this game. :)

When the music stopped, the kids each found one heart to stand on. They had to act out whatever direction was written on their heart (act like a monkey, quack like a duck, walk like a robot). Abbie's getting ready to kick like a donkey in the picture below.

After this game, the kids all played together nicely for quite some time. We mommies appreciated the chance to cuddle with the littlest ones (there are now 3 infants in our group!) while having a chance to chat a bit. Finally, we ended with crafts.

I had used my scrapbooking circle cutters to make these white wreaths. The kids were free to cover their wreaths with hearts however they wanted. 

Any craft that uses glue stick always seems to be a hit!

Cody and Jaden stuck with their craft much longer than they have on some previous playdates. I could tell they were proud of their finished products when they specifically asked me to take a picture of their completed wreaths.

Our second playdate also started with snack time. Ruth prepared typical Americana food in honor of President's Day-- apples and chocolate chip bars. Yum!

Abbie, Kenzie, Landon, Cody, Jaden

 Look at this bunch standing so nicely, listening to directions for the game. So cute! 

Samie had the difficult task of preparing an activity for 2 and 3 year olds that related to presidents. :) What she came up with was perfect! We played a version of "I Spy" called "George Washington, George Washington, what do you see?" Samie would call out a color or shape for the kiddos to find in the room. I think they're all searching for something brown in this pic.

All of the kiddos were quite excited to find a fitting object to show George Washington. Below, they're showing us something pink. We probably played at least 10 rounds of this game.

For the craft, I brought a cute (and super-easy) Lincoln/Washington reversible cut-out that I found on Pinterest.

Jaden's Washington craft is on the left, and my sample Lincoln is on the right. When completed, we glued the two together so that the presidents were back to back.

I'm fairly certain that the president theme was over all the kids' heads, but it was still a fun morning. We mommies certainly appreciate having a theme to make the planning a bit easier... and a bit more interesting, too. Overall, we're just thankful for an excuse to get together with some good friends!

Rock, Tumble & Roll

For the past 7 weeks, Jaden and Cody have participated in a gymnastics class at the YMCA. It was a perfect outing to give the boys some regular exercise during these chilly winter months. It was also good for the boys to have practice listening to an adult other than Jason or me. Our registration for this class was a Christmas gift from Uncle Andy & Aunt Beth and Uncle Andrew & Aunt Sarah. Thanks again, guys, for your kind and generous gift! The boys have absolutely loved their experience! 

The first week, Jaden and Cody were very hesitant and wanted me to stay by their side or hold them through most of the class. Already by the next week, both boys were much more independent. The class, called Rock, Tumble and Roll, is specifically designed for 2 and 3-year-olds. The instructor has a great understanding of this age level and did a phenomenal job with the kids. She stuck to a fairly consistent routine for each class. Each week, she started with some stretches on the carpet squares.

Most of the time, she would have the kids be butterflies (see Cody's position below) and hide from the catchers (stick their head in their lap to stretch). It was a very common sight to have at least one child randomly not following directions at any given time in the class, like this wandering boy below.

After stretching, the kids would grab balls and practice shooting baskets. The basket was just the right height for our boys to dunk.

Then, the instructor (Ms. Kristen) would tell the kids to "stick to the wall." They had this direction down pat! You may find it interesting to hear that both kids in the picture with the boys below are a few months older than Jaden and Cody. Our boys really ARE tall!

This is the first shot that shows our entire class of 5 kids. Ms. Kristen would have the kids either throw the ball overhead, throw it from their chest, or kick the ball across the room and then retrieve it. It was so interesting watching the boys' group dynamics in this class. After running back to the wall, Jaden and Cody would almost always seek each other out to stand next to one another, even if it meant squeezing by another child! 

Here's a video of the boys in action. 

After a few throws or kicks, the kids traveled the same length of the room without a ball. This time, they'd either have to do a bear crawl (Jaden's the only one doing it correctly below),

walk backwards,

hop across the room, 

or gallop. Once the kids got to the other side of the room, they were always supposed to "crash" on the yellow mat and then stay "asleep" until Kristen told them to wake up. Then, they could run back to the wall for their next direction.

This last video (of the bear crawl) cracks me up. Cody obviously gets a bit impatient with the crawling, and Jaden refuses to get left behind...

The next activity always changed from week to week. Sometimes they played with balloons, streamers, or these hula hoops.

Then it was on to the circuits! Each week, Ms. Kristen set up a type of obstacle course with mats, ramps, trampolines, balance beams, or hoops. She usually had the kids practice a log roll on one ramp and a somersault on another.

This part of the class typically held the kids' interest for the longest period of time.

I loved watching Cody and Jaden complete these circuits. They seemed to get the hang of each new circuit very quickly and stuck faithfully to the course. They are the kind of kids who want to do things "just right." (I wonder who they get that from....)

Sometimes, waiting for friends was a bit of a challenge. Good thing the girl that Jaden whacked into in the video below was a patient little girl!

Next, Ms. Kristen had the kids take bean bags (which she called pancakes) and stick them on the rock wall. I didn't get any pictures of this part of the class. I think that her intent was for the kids to practice climbing while placing their beanbags, but she never really encouraged this. So, most kids just stayed on the ground and stuck their beanbags only as high as they could reach. I guess it might be a bit challenging to manage 5+ little ones hanging off a rock wall...

The very last part of the class was Jaden and Cody's absolute favorite! Ms. Kristen would help the kids across a balance beam, and then they'd stand by the wall to wait for...

... the ZIP LINE!! How exciting for a 2-year-old! It was fun watching the boys' progression with this from week to week. At the very beginning, Ms. Kristen held the children all the way down. After a couple weeks, she'd let the kids hang by themselves and just hold on to their hands. Cody got the form down fairly well.

Jaden loved wildly pedaling his legs most of his way down!

By the last couple of classes, though, both boys rode the zip line independently! Or as they would say, "by self!" We were quite proud of our little guys. :)

The boys still continue to ask most every morning, "Go to rock tumble roll?" They loved every minute of this class! Thanks SO much again for this wonderful gift, Walquists and Hansons!

Penguin Play

Our first playdate of 2015 followed a winter snow theme. The boys and I missed attending that one because they were sick. But, we heard that our friends had a great time eating cheese stick snowmen, having an indoor snowball fight with socks, and making these paper plate snowmen:

Thankfully, Jaden and Cody were feeling better by the time our second January playdate rolled around. This one was penguin-themed. Even our two youngest playgroup members, Hannah and Wes, got into the theme. Aren't these two just adorable? :)

Samie slaved over these super cute penguin snacks, made with string cheese, olives, and carrots. Talk about impressive! :)

Here are the seven older kiddos, waiting patiently for snacktime.

Kenzie, Landon, Abbie, Micah, Ryder, Jaden, Cody

During snacktime, we watched a very brief video on YouTube which gave some fun facts about penguins. Then, we moved on to a few activities. All the kids listened and participated SO well for this first little game! We discussed what "waddling like a penguin" means and practiced some waddling.

Then, we all waddled along to this little tune: 

(sung to Twinkle Twinkle)

Penguins, penguins, having fun; Waddling in the winter sun.

Waddling fast and waddling slow; Waddling to and waddling fro;

Penguins, Penguins oh-so-nice...

We reeeally exaggerated the slow and fast waddling!

The song ended with, "They sit down upon some ice!" After hearing this line, the kids each had to find an ice cube (a white square of paper) to sit upon. I think we sang this song 3 or 4 times. It was quite a hit!

After the waddling song, the kids worked together to carry cotton ball "ice cubes" over to the couch, using only a plastic spoon. Somewhat surprisingly, they could actually all carry out this activity really well! I figured the game would be better as a cooperative activity, rather than a relay race, like I had seen on Pinterest. The kids did it fairly quickly and seemed to enjoy working together.

Our last game was Penguin I Spy. The kids sat down in groups of 2 with a stack of penguin picture cards. One of the adults would say something like, "I spy a penguin holding a star (or ice skating, or wearing a purple hat)," and the kids would find the appropriate cards. 

Recently, Jaden and Cody have been really into matching games at home, so they overall seemed to like this one. When we were done, each family kept a set of the penguin cards so they could play their own matching game at home.

After all these activities, the kids were ready for a bit of free play. Finally, though, our playdate ended with craft time. Ruth planned a very cute craft that used the kids' handprints as the penguin's wings.  

The kids, of course, were most excited about using the glue sticks!

And here's our group... holding their completed penguins.

"We love penguins!" :)

Winter Crafts

Recently, because Cody and Jaden haven't been very into outdoor snow play, we've decided to bring some snow fun indoors... in the form of craft projects. I found all these cute ideas on one of my favorite blogs: handsonaswegrow.com. The girl who writes this blog has 3 boys, so her projects are usually right up our alley.

First, we made a snow collage. I taped some contact paper to our glass door and gave the boys various decorating items (paper, Q-tips, and cotton balls).

We found out that if we dabbed the cotton balls on the contact paper, it left a fun wispy, cloud-like remnant.

That was definitely the boys' favorite part!

Here is their final abstract product. The only help Mommy gave was with the snowflake in the bottom corner. I was trying to convince them to make snowmen with the circles and hat shapes, but as you can tell, that didn't happen. :)

Another day, we made no-mess painted snowflakes. Mommy loved this one! I started by cutting snowflake designs into small paper plates. Cody and Jaden loved opening up the snowflakes to see the patterns. Then, we stuck the snowflakes into plastic bags.

The boys each picked out a color of paint and helped me dump it into the bag. Then, they got to use their hands (and later even their feet!) to smear around the paint. Good thing we made the snowflakes with a durable paper plate!

Even though we dumped glitter into the bag along with our paint, it didn't show up very well. So, after taking the snowflakes out of the bag (it worked best to turn the bag completely inside-out), Jaden and Cody got to sprinkle on a bit more glitter.

Once the snowflakes were dry, we hung them on our mantel. Also on our mantel are paper plate/snowglobe snowmen that the boys made at library story time. Each week, a mom volunteers to lead toddler-friendly crafts that fit with the theme of the library stories. Her ideas are always so cute. We love our weekly library time!

This next craft was from our first January playgroup. Unfortunately, the boys and I had to miss our gathering, due to sickness. But, since I was the one to plan the snowman craft, I had all the supplies ready to go. The boys enjoyed assembling their snowman here at home once they were feeling better. The lighting of the photo isn't great to tell this, but their favorite part was adding decorations and features to the snowman's hat and face. And of course, ANY craft that involves glue stick is always a winner!

Most recently, we made marshmallow snowman. I wasn't sure how the boys would handle this project, since they LOVE eating marshmallows, but we gave it a try. First, Jaden and Cody colored their paper blue.

Then, Mommy drew on the snowman's body. The boys helped me squirt glue along the black lines. After sampling a small handful of marshmallows, they were ready to stick the marshmallows on the glue.

Not that this was my intent, but this was a great project to practice the boys' fine motor skills. Not surprisingly, Jaden was very careful about placing his marshmallows on the black line. He hardly needed my help at all!

Cody need a bit more guidance (he liked to just drop his marshmallows on the paper), but he eventually got the hang of it. Mommy was just thankful that we made it through the project without anyone eating a glue-covered marshmallow! :)

Now, our house is full of snowy decorations! We enjoy having something festive hanging up, especially right after the Christmas decorations go away. I'll have to remember this again next year!